Open Houses Are Slowly Making a Come-back! Here’s How To Make Sure Yours Runs Smoothly

A successful open house requires a little more work than setting a date and throwing open your doors to potential buyers. Through careful staging, you can emphasize your home’s strong points and persuade buyers to take a second look. If you want to increase your chances of closing the deal, here are some tips on how to throw a great open house.

Be sure to choose the right time of day. Generally, the “right time” is daytime. This is so that viewers can get a clear picture of the yard, as well as a good idea of how much sunlight the home gets. If you know the sun floods in at a particular time of day, try to hold the open house then to give yourself the best shot at closing the deal.

Don’t be there. Your real estate agent is there to talk up your home and close the deal. You job is to stay away. Potential buyers want to imagine themselves in the home. Something that’s very difficult to do when you are hovering around them. So go work out, take a cooking class; it really doesn’t matter..just stay gone.

Put away your pets.Dogs and cats can be a big turn off to potential buyers. In addition to the odor and noise that pets cause, they can also set off an allergic reaction that can hasten an interested party out the door. So put them up with a friend or family member, or take them to a kennel. Check out: 10 Mistakes That Could Ruin Your Open House.

Curb Appeal. A bit of gardening, a yard clean-up and a fresh coat of paint are all cheap and easy ways to make a great first impression. You don’t need to completely re-landscape your yard, but a few simple choices can help emphasize some of your home’s strong points. For instance, arrange the furniture on your patio with the barbecue front and center so potential buyers can imagine themselves hosting mid-summer dinner parties out back. See: Open House Strategies.

Keep your colors neutral. If you plan on putting up a new coat of paint before your open house, remember that neutral colors work best. Sure, eggshell white isn’t that exciting, but you want to avoid colors that might offend. By giving buyers a blank canvas, you allow them to imagine how they’d decorate the place.

Be sure to declutter. The longer we live in a place, the more clutter we accumulate. By cleaning up and packing some of your stuff away before the open house, you can make rooms feel bigger. Arrange furniture so that potential buyers flow through the house naturally, rather than having to step around chairs or squeeze by coffee tables.

Fresh Flowers. Who doesn’t love flowers? Planted flowers in the garden, and cut flowers in the kitchen and living room can really brighten up the place, making it look especially vibrant. Sure you don’t want it to look like a wake, but a few strategically place bouquets can go a long way.

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Agents disagree over whether open houses really sell homes. Some believe that open houses help agents find new clients but are less effective at selling a specific home. But many sellers and agents do find them valuable and suggest holding an open house the first weekend the house is listed. I’d like to stress again, that when you hold an open house, these things are not negotiable: freshen up the landscaping and exterior paint, plus consider purchasing a few new items, including a garage door, mailbox, exterior door and house numbers. Clean the driveway and walkways, and get the cars out of the driveway and from in front of the house.